And I am back.
I officially hate technology, exams and all sports referees.
They all stink, and ruin my writing capabilities.
And the all caused delays to the chapter.
REGARDLESS! I deliver you... Part 2!
Thank you all for the reviews, keep them coming!
I own nothing
Chapter Four: Explosive Part Two
Ashley gazed around New Linden with fascination.
Before the invasion, the colony had been on the cards for a new grand scale development. A vessel had been exploring along the rims of the Argos Rho System, when the came across a previously unexplored cluster. Three worlds were unique, due to the fact that they all had environments and soil supportable for both dextro and levi base organisms. Ranhe Corp, the company funding the original expedition, had made plans with the Turian Heirachy and Alliance, to venture a joint colonisation project for the three planets; New Linden, Exec and Daphresh.
However, due to the invasion and immediate fallout of the war, the company decided instead to change its plans regarding colonisation. It had, instead, made a massive joint approach to the New Alliance, The Hierachy, the batarian's, the quarians and geth, the elcor and the hanar species reflectively.
Much to the media's surprise, all governments had approved settlement. And so, the first multi species colony were formed.
New Linden was by far the biggest of the three colonies, and Ashley's mother Madeline, decided that for the remander of her life, she wanted to do some good by creating a new future on New Linden.
It truly was amazing, Ashley thought. All around her mother's home, new families were prospering. Ashley had already met her mother's neighbours. The Gretos's, a drell family on the right of her mother. The Haseeva's, a quarian family on their left. And behind them, was the inter-species couple, Wekrin Vaktrin, an ex-turian militant, and Urdnot Kranik, a krogan battlemaster who had decided to live with Wekrin on New Linden, rather than return to either of their homeworlds that still shunned their relationship.
All in all, New Linden was an embrace of all culture's and all attitudes.
Ashley would have thought that her mother would have difficulty living in a place with so many alien's and controversial relationships. Madeline was a sworn Christian. No matter where the family was, Jump Zero or a traverse colony, she had always managed to find a chaplain, and make the family attend every Sunday, earth time.
But in the week that Ashley had stayed with her mother, Ashley had seen a side to her mother that she had never known was there.
She was still a devout Christian, but she believed fundamentally that love was the basic tenant of the bible. The fact that her neighbours were alien's and homosexual, didn't seem to bother her.
When Ashley had questioned her about her open friendliness, she had answered just that.
'And besides Ashley, I'm not really sure it counts as a gay relationship. Plus they are great members of the neighbourhood watch!'
Ashley shook her head as she sat on the front porch watching the sun go down over the lazy summer eve. She never could have imagined that this could be her. Not only had she let go of the past xenophobia that seemed to haunt her family, but the galaxy was now in such a state.
Of course she knew that not everything in the galaxy was as perfect as New Linden. But if this one colony could represent such a great blend of everything Shepard had fought for...
It gave her hope.
Kaidan squealed in her arms and she smiled down at him. Of course Kaidan was the most beautiful baby that had ever existed. He was the best thing she had ever done, and could honestly say she would give up anything for him.
Both her, and Kaidan, were missing Shepard though.
He hadn't called them since their second night here, and she missed the sound of his voice. She wasn't worried about his lack of contact. Communications on New Linden were still sporadic, and it was difficult to get real time video with the colony.
But still... something lurked at the back of her mind.
Ashley was not a fool. She knew when she was being played, and Shepard was definitely hiding something from her. He had had more nightmares since their reconciliation and, unlike before, he was willing to talk about them. But when they did, he always seemed to have a layer of deceit over what he told her, as if he was hiding something.
But he seemed to be a lot happier. She had never seen him with as much joy as now. It was if he had some sort of new determination within him.
But the shadows within him still seemed to lurk.
Interupted in her musings by the return of her chattering mother, she had returned from the local store with Kreel'Haseeva. The teenage boy next door, had kindly offered to carry her mother's grocery's, but looked to be a bit overwhelmed by Madeline's overmuch of information.
'...and that's when I said, Shepard, you may have saved the galaxy, but there is no way you are marrying my daughter unless you know how to cook a good casserole.'
Ashley blushed. The story of how Shepard had to earn her mother's permission to marry Ashley, was one Maddy liked to repeat often to everyone she met .
Much to Ashley and Shepard's embarrassment.
The pair, laden with bags, walked past Ashley her mother with barely a glance at her.
Kreel shot Ashley an apologetic look as he followed her mother into the kitchen.
Ashley groaned at her mother's antics. While her mother was quiet proud to have Shepard as a son, she seemed to be more impressed by his cooking skills, than his diplomatic ones.
Ashley entered the kitchen to Maddy's continued rambling.
'... and when I took my first bite, I just knew! I said to Ashley, don't you let this one go! He can cook!' Maddy exclaimed.
Kreel gave Ashley another incredulous look while Maddy muttered to the butter and lettuce. Ashley shot Kreel a grin, and averted her eyes when he turned bright red. The atmosphere of New Linden was friendly enough to allow quarian's to live without their suits. Unfortunately for Kreel, this new freedom also offered them exposure in other ways and made it difficult to hide body language.
Particularly for those that had crushes on the wife of Commander Shepard.
Ashley retuned her gaze to her mother who was now shooing Kreel out the back door, with a piece of dextro friendly candy in his hand. He shot Ashley one last look, before the door shut behind him. Maddy turned, and gestured for Ashley to sit down at the table.
Maddy placed a cup of tea in front of Ashley, and gave her a good hard stare.
Ashley, used to her mother's odd behaviour, chose to ignore her by fiddling with Kaidan's toy.
'Righto kiddo! What's up?' Maddy demanded with a slightly crazy glint in her eye.
Ashley put on an innocent face, which caused her mother to erupt with laughter.
'C'mon Ashy. Don't try to play that game with me! I know you too well for that nonsense.' She stated between giggles.
Ashley slumped and resigned herself to a long conversation.
'It's Shepard.' She said.
Maddy was silent, and then motioned with her hand for Ashley to continue.
Ashley explained the situation for a few minutes, and then stopped and stared at Maddy's unusually silent face.
Maddy looked thoughtful, before asking Ashley a question.
'I know our family was hardly as crazy as yours Ash, but your father had his fair share of problems.'
Ashley looked surprised and Maddy continued nodding at her reaction.
'Oh yes, we had our problems. I remember one time, when your father came back for a rotation, you and Lynn were the only two born then. He was beside himself, the company he was in had run across a nasty raid and a lot of the members were seriously injured. Your father tried to save one of the men, but he refused to be treated. He told your father that he couldn't trust the son of a traitor. The man died before they reached the base'
Ashley sighed. It was a long time before the stigma of being a Willams had rubbed off their name. Sadly, her father had never lived to see it.
Maddy continued.
'Of course the trauma had a horrible effect on your father, he wouldn't even tell me what had happened until I asked a friend in his unit. Typical man. Wouldn't accept help from anyone, least of all me. He didn't want to seem weak.'
Ashley nodded this seemed very similar behaviour to Shepard's.
'What I am saying, Ashley, is that you are exactly like your father.'
Ashley's head whipped up at that, and gave her crazy mother a look.
Maddy laughed again. 'No Ashy, you really are just like your dad! You keep all this stuff locked up inside you, and you never tell anybody! But just like your dad, you are too honest for it to stay in there for long. But Shepard's not you honey. Don't give me that look, I know your husband is a good man. But he has secrets as well as would any person with a history like his. He has been through a lot, and he must have learnt how to hide it. Even from you.'
Ashley stared at her mother. She shouldn't really be surprised, her mother had a rare insight into people's souls. She was an excellent judge of character.
Maddy stared at Ashley's troubled face and made a fast conclusion.
Her girl needed a break.
'You are going out tonight my dear' she exclaimed while viciously bobbing her head up and down.
Maddy quickly rose and grabbed Kaidan out of her arms before Ashley could object.
She quickly poked a dazed Ashley into rising, tossing her a handbag and a keycard to the house.
'OUT! Out you go!' she said loudly prodding Ashley out of the door.
Maddy closed the door, and Ashley could hear the omni-lock chiming.
'AND DON'T COME BACK UNTIL YOU HAVE RELAXED!'
Ashley stared at the door, shell-shocked by her mother's behaviour.
As a few minutes passed, a grin came over her face and she turned to walk down the street.
Maddy watched from the window, and smiled fondly at her eldest daughter.
Kaidan gurgled in her arms, a grin of his own stretching over his face.
She laughed at his reaction.
'We'll be running rings around her yet Kaidan!'
Ashley was having fun.
It had been a long time since she had had time to herself. While she adored Kaidan, and he was well behaved, he still required her attention all the time. Plus it was nice to be away from everything.
New Linden's capital Omaha, was holding a festival, in honour of the third year since the defeat of the Reapers. It was a massive stewpot of culture, and Ashley had tried more new foods than she had eaten in her whole life. She even managed to get copies of some recipes that she knew Shepard would love to cook.
Or at least, she would love to eat again.
She was sitting by a food court, on a table overlooking the valley that Omaha was settled in. It was so peaceful at night, the stars twinkling above and families laughing.
A group of New Alliance marines walked into the court, and milled around laughing.
Ashley missed the military. She loved being a mother, and living her life with Shepard, but there was still a comfort in the military that civilian life didn't offer.
She felt as if she had a purpose, and a duty to something bigger than herself. Of course, she didn't have to prove that her name was worth something anymore, but even when she was in the pits of despair about never being promoted, she felt that determination.
Taking Shepard's name, had not been a hard decision. She could think of no better way to honour his love. But now that she was, Mrs Commander Shepard, nobody expected anything from her.
Which was rather annoying.
And though she loved him, her mother was right. She didn't know anything about his secrets. He knew the history of the William's family, she didn't know the history of the Shepard's.
'SeñoraCabezón! What are you doing here?' a shout interrupted her musings.
She looked up to see a familiar grinning marine, looking down at her with a pint of beer in one hand.
Before she could react, James put down his beer, and lifted her up into a bear hug.
'James...' she wheezed out 'Can't breathe!'
'Oh, Mi culpa.' He said placing her back down on the ground.
'But what are you doing here? I thought you had a baby and Loco to look after back in Sydney?' He questioned again, sitting himself opposite her.
She sat as well. 'I'm here visiting my mother, Kaidan is with her. I was kicked out to go have some fun.'
James whistled. 'Damn. Your mother must have some balls to kick you out.'
She punched him in the soldier, a grin cracking her face before continuing.
'So, I am here on a holiday. An what about you huh? I thought you were on N training?'
'Just finished this morning!' He cried happily. 'I am officially, an N7!'
He raised his arm, and the group of marines joined him in his cheer.
Ashley couldn't help but laugh at James' crazy antics. She knew that he worked hard to be an N7.
'So I came here to celebrate, even though I am back on the New Alliance roster for reassignment. I figured, one night on the town eh? Just don't tell Shepard, or he will probably lecture me about responsibility or something. Man, for a crazy man, who can beat my record of chin-ups, he can sure be a hard-ass when it comes to the N's.'
Ashley nodded. Shepard was particularly passionate about the N program. Lord only knows why, as it nearly killed its candidates.
'So you and me here eh? Anything could happen.' James said, waggling his eyebrows ridiculously.
Ashley laughed again, and was about to respond when her omni-tool lit up with a new message.
She glanced down and saw that it was priority.
It read:
Cmdr. Shepard, Ashley,
Please be advised as next of kin, that Cmdr. Shepard, Jarryd, has been recovered from a factory explosion in Sydney, Australia, Earth.
Unknown cause as of now.
Is being moved to New Alliance HQ, Vancouver, Earth.
Will contact you pending details,
New Alliance Command.
Ashley felt the blood drain from her face.
Before James could ask her what was wrong, new messages chimed from both there omni-tools.
HIGH PRIORITY
ALL NORMANDY CREW TO RETURN IMMEDIATELY TO VANCOUVEREARTHSOL SYSTEM.
CITADEL SPECTRES OFFICE.
Ashley looked up from her message to see, James standing and making ready to leave.
'What was the first message Commander?' He asked gently placing a hand on her shoulder.
'It's Shepard.' She managed to slip out, fear radiating off her.
She stood up abruptly, the chair sliding across the ground.
She looked at James steady face and said 'I have to get Kaidan.'
He nodded and asked 'Do you mind if I go with you?'
She just gestured for him to follow.
Two days after Ashley left for New Linden, Shepard decided that he was going to go back to the slums, to try and pick up the trail of the Reds.
Picking across the attempted mugging site, a well armed Shepard decided that he should follow the alley that the men had run down.
Dingy apartment buildings seemed to stretch on forever, and his frustration grew as he searched for four hours for any sign of the Reds. Of course he knew if they didn't want to be seen they wouldn't be, but he had had more hope of finding something.
Just as his anger was about the overtake him, he turned a corner, only to pull back. He had found one of the men that had tried to mug him. It was the sensible one, who looked to be fairly smart. He glanced around shiftily, before walking into the factory building that was behind him.
A factory. The factory.
The smell of burning heat sinks filled the air, as homeless people ran screaming from the direction of the blaze. The fire-fight that had occurred after the police had received an anonymous tip, that the local street gang was housing large containers full of red sand and armaments had caused the blaze. The police were not prepared for the show of force from the Reds.
Jay looked on with a sense of fierce horror. He had been the one to call the police. It had been the right thing to do. He knew it was the right thing to do.
But why did it have to go so wrong.
'Oh my god!' Isaac yelled from behind him.
He made as if to run towards the burning building, but Jay held him back. Isaac beat his arms against Jay's pleading with him to let him help.
But the screams had died. The fire had consumed.
'They are all dead.' He stated frankly. An emotionless voice hiding his pain.
All his fault.
'How? How? Why!' his brother screamed.
'It was me. I called the police' Jay uttered in a low voice.
Isaac moved away from, Jay's limp embrace and turned to him.
'What?' he whispered, his face pleading for Jay to lie. To not let it be true.
But it was.
Isaac saw the truth plainly on Jay's face. That his brother had been responsible for so much death.
Revulsion. Hate. Betrayal.
And when Isaac hit him for the first time that night, and his blood stained his own hand, he knew the truth.
He was responsible, for destroying his family.
The memory faded, and the darkness of the slums seemed to creep in further than before. Shepard waited until the man had been inside the factory for ten minutes, before making his move.
But just as he reached the door, the cold hard barrel of a gun was pressed against his neck.
'Don't move' a gravelly voice whispered.
He turned, trying to disarm the man. But before he had even reached a half halfway, he collapsed into darkness.
Shepard groaned.
A throbbing ache was stretching up and around the back of his head, and through to the base of his spine. It was as if he had been electrocuted, injected red sand and was then beaten within an inch of his life.
Whatever they had used had packed one hell of a punch.
Shepard cracked his eyes open, and found himself tied up to the wall of a dimly lit room.
Spent thermal clips, and old blood stains littered the floor. A metre in front of him, was an old, beaten metal table. On it lay, what seemed to be, large scale tranquiliser guns.
He felt like death had crept up on him again. Where the hell was he? How long was he out for? What about Ashley? Kaidan?
A chill crept over him. The Reds were not how he remembered them to be. If they could take him, high profile and all, they must be very good.
Or, they just didn't give a shit.
But if they had woken him, after a seemingly prolonged unconsciousness, they wanted something.
As if hearing his thoughts, a man skipped into the room.
He stared at Shepard for a while, a look of incredulous wonder on his face, as if it was Kaidan, who had found the toy Shepard hid from him.
'My bosses will be happy' he stated gleefully. 'My cell, MY CELL! Caught the great Commander Shepard.'
'Cell?' Shepard questioned confused. 'Who the hell are you people!'
The man giggled maniaclly.
'Oh you don't know! You don't know! Oh what I would give to tell you! But if I did, they wouldn't like it no no no!' The man rambled.
The man was strange, almost like a child. He had a flash of inspiration.
'It could be our secret.' Shepard suggested quietly.
The man's eratic movements stopped, as he turned to stare at Shepard.
'I promise not to tell.'
The man seemed to agree, and an excited look came over his face.
'I am a Red. Like the colour of my blood' the man said
So it was the Reds. Shepard knew that oath, he had taken it himself.
But the man was continuing.
'And we guard the great gates. We hold out the light, for all the believers. We will uplift humanity, to its rightful place!' The man finished with a yell.
Shepard had never heard that part of the oath before.
'Are you a Red?' he questioned.
The man shook his head, a toothy grin cracking open his face.
'Not anymore, not anymore, not anymore. Yes and no. Yes and no.'
Before Shepard could make heads or tails of the crazy man's answer, the man's omni-tool beeped. The man quickly scoured the message, before laughing gleefully.
'Nearly here, nearly here!'
Realising that his time was probably running out, Shepard called for the man to come closer.
'I have a secret for you as well'
The man rushed forward quickly, eager to hear.
Shepard slammed his head against the man's . The man collapsed at his feet.
He was tied to the wall, with old fashioned rope, and after ten minutes or so, he was able strain the ropes enough, to slip his hands out. He fell to floor with a thump, the man groaning as Shepard walked away.
The room looked ordinary enough for a factory. Large shipping containers filled up the majority of the floor space. It was a maze to get to the door. Shepard climbed on top of one crate marked fragile, and observed his surroundings.
The factory was huge. Rows and rows of crates lined the floors. Shepard could see the large blast doors at the opposite end of the room. He made his way towards them, hopping from container to container.
He was halfway there, when he spotted a side room. It looked locked, but he was pretty sure he could see a computer in there. His desire to get away, was outweighed by his need to know what kind of shit he was in.
The door was locked, and it took him a slow few minuted to hack the lock by hand. It had been a long time since he had to do this without an omni-tool, but like his keycards and credit chit, they were gone when he had regained consciousnesses.
'Shit, shit, shit.' He muttered sucking on his singed finger.
The doors locked chimed, and he walked in. He quickly spotted his belongings on the table. He powered up his omni-tool and frowned. An extensive purge had been done on it. All information wiped.
He scowled as he scoured through the shadow data streams. Before his data had been wiped, someone had made copies.
This was bad.
He started up the computer, to see if he could find the copies.
He couldn't access the mainframe, but he could set up his omnitool to mine the data.
It was halfway through its scan, when the factory rocked with an explosion.
Shepard quickly looked out of the door, it seemed like a fire had started at on end of the factory. A spray of bullets through a gap in a wall, caused him to duck back into the office.
Holy hell.
Whatever is going on in this place must be huge.
Another explosion sounded from behind the door, and the smell of burnt red sand filled the air.
Shepard pulled off his shirt, and wrapped it around his face. The last thing he needed was to get high from red sand, and walk into a flames or gunfire. But it confirmed his suspicion that whoever the group was, they were into some serious smuggling. The amount of crates in the warehouse alone, would indicate that.
The a break in gunfire, made Shepard rush back towards the table. His omni-tool had completed its mine and he slipped it back onto his hand.
He turned ran out of the office, through the smoke and crates, hoping desperately to find a way out. His eyes burnt and began to water.
And spread of gunfire caused him to splay himself flat on his front. A stray bullet hit his right shoulder as he army crawled behind another set of crates. Grimacing in pain, he quickly evaluated his injury. The bullet was still in his shoulder, and he could feel his arm numbing. Beneath the haze of smoke, Shepard could see a purple substance leaking underneath his skin.
He paled. The bullet must have been coated with GringolLythaide. GL was a toxin developed by a group of batarian terrorists years ago. The batarians had discovered the blueprints for the gene enhancements all Alliance Marines underwent to create fitter, stronger soldiers. Unfortunately, the gene tweaking also caused those particular genes to be identical within each Allaince soldier making the GL toxin, a universal and effective attack on all the marine's affected genetic tags.
The toxin was developed from the Gringol Flower on Thessia. The poison worked on Alliance soldiers, and had been used to great effect in the attack of Elysium. It caused excruciating pain and death within half an hour.
The toxin was a banned substance, for the group to have gotten their hands on it...
This did not bode well for the Internal Security of the Alliance.
And if he didn't get to a medic in time... He would never see his family again.
Filled with a grim determination, it slightly unsteady. Shepard stood up and continued through the maze.
He rounded a corner and ran straight into one of the shooters. Before the woman could react, Shepard made fling for her gun hand. He landed on top of her, and he tried to keep his body weight on her while grappling for the gun one handed. The shirt was flung off his face and into the darkness.
She reached both her hands towards it, and Shepard slammed his left arm across her throat. Her fingers scratched for it, before her body shook violently trying to throw him off. He held firm though, until her body stopped twitching.
She had been well armed, with expensive post-Reaper guns and armour.
He left her body, grabbing the gun loosely with his uninjured arm. He coughed as he struggled though the fog. He seemed to be getting darker in the factory, and he could hear distant gunfire and shouting.
Another explosion rocked the factory and Shepard fell again. Hazy shaped blurred and spun, and Shepard tired to squint thought it.
There! He could see a police siren; he stumbled up and floundered towards it. A cold blast of dirty smelling air hit him. He could see the familiar shapes of the slums, but for some reason even though he was away from the smoke, they were still blurry.
A blast from behind him flung him into a wall, and with a thump he slid to the ground. He didn't have the energy to get up this time, and the last thing he saw before everything went black was the factory burning.
Burning, burning.
Shepard woke up in a evac shuttle. Two New Allaince soldiers, with symbols identifying them as medical, were on either side of him. He coughed weakly, and the younger one addressed him in a British accent.
'Commander Shepard sir, you were in a serious accident. You were shot with a toxin, but the cure may take some time to take effect.'
Shepard groaned in response, before questioning.
'Were are you taking me?'
'Vancouver sir. The injured you have need to be treated at a hospital, and the higher-ups want to debrief you.'
Shepard let his head fall back on the pillow, and stared at the shaking roof of the transport.
'My wife-' he began.
'Don't worry sir' the silent soldier said. 'A message was sent.'
Shepard nodded and closed his eyes. Ashley was going to kill him, there was no way his was going to get out of this one without a full explanation. Why the hell did it have to become so complicated.
His eyes snapped open and he nearly launched himself out of the bunk, before the Medical's restrained him.
'My omni-tool! I need it, now!' he cried.
The two men looked at each other, and at Shepard's frantic gaze before conceding to his request.
Shepard quickly opened the tool and started reading.
The soldier's watched as Shepard went pale.
'No... It can't be.' He whispered eyes wide.
He glanced once more through the contents, before turning to the now confused marines.
'Get me access to the SPECTRE office channels. I'll give you the codes.'
The jumped at his order, and ran to organise the connection.
While they were busy, Shepard rested his head again on the pillow, this time wide awake.
The factory had belonged to the Reds, but the gang had formed a partnership with a bigger crime syndicate.
And the very much active organisation that headed the whole thing.
Cerberus.
Have I got you jumpy yet? If I have, review. If I have not... review anyway!
Next update, soon I promise.